Guardian Angel
by USAF ParaJumper
Summary: Agent 47 has been transported to the Citadel along with his target on an assignment, both of which end up on different parts of the station and begin their game of cat and mouse. While looking for directions, 47 meets Tali, who was attacked by Eclipse for unknown reasons. In exchange for protection, Tali agrees to help 47 find his target and get him back home. Talix47 is possible.
1. Chapter 1

The light emanating from the Zippo lighter burned just bright enough for 47 to navigate the vents without much sound. "Turn left at the next juncture and keep heading straight until you reach a vertical drop." Diana said through his ear piece. He followed her directions to the drop then very carefully placed his hands against the aluminum sides to support his decent head first for twenty feet. The rifle that he had in his concealed holster under his suit jacket was resting alongside the vent while he went down so it wouldn't make any sudden sound if it hit the sides.

"How reliable is our inside source again?" 47 asked Diana. "You know that I have a problem trusting people I haven't met before."

"Don't worry 47. Our source has worked with us in the past without complications of any kind. Just keep moving forward and I'll give you directions."

The mission's objective was simple: infiltration into the research laboratory, find passage into the testing chambers where Dr. Woods was working, assassinate the doctor, and dispatch any resistance. Getting through the outside perimeter was simple enough, entering during the afternoon while the guards were at their most relaxed state and anxiously awaiting the next rotation, was able to keep him unaware of him cutting the gate. Infiltration into the laboratory: check.

After he made it to the main building, he located a large air conditioning system by two guards armed with assault rifles. He checked himself over to make sure that his suit didn't have any dirt from him crawling in the ground, and then walked up to the guards.

"Excuse me, I have an appointment with Dr. Woods but the key card he gave me isn't working at the front door." 47 said to them as he got closer. One of the guards approached him to help him out while the other was messing with his camel pack, trying to get some water. 47 reached into his jacket and made it look like he was getting his ID out but just as the man approaching him blocked the line of sight of the other guard, he unholstered his silenced Silverballer pistol and fired at the guard. The second man tried to react in time but was shot three times in the lungs before he could even turn off the safety to his weapon. Dispatch any resistance: check.

After hiding the bodies in the vents along with taking and what eve whatever ammo they had on them, 47 entered the shaft while Diana gave him directions to his destination. Find passage into the testing chambers: check.

He had just gotten through the drop and was led to his destination. While shutting his Zippo, he crawled closer to an opening of the vent, which led to the middle of the room then continued into another, and peered through it. He saw his target along with two other scientists and a guard in the same room. Dr. Woods was working on a large machine while one of the scientists filled the side of it with an unknown liquid. He knew that he couldn't get in without a distraction so he navigated the vents, looking for an empty room. After a little searching, he found what appeared to be a first aid room. He made sure it was empty before crawling out and started searching the cabinets for anything he could use. All that he found were some Band-Aids, cloth, hydrogen peroxide, and a lot of instant cold packs.

'This will do' he thought to himself. He grabbed the cloth and cold packs along with a bucket on the ground in the corner. Taking out his knife, he cut open the cold packs and removed the water packets and emptied the ammonium nitrate into the buckets; he then poured the water packets in to the bucket and mixed the two together. Then he placed the cloth into the mixture and let it soak the entire thing. Once that was complete, he wrung it to allow it to get as dry as possible, the smoke bomb was complete.

After arranging the area to its original setting, 47 quietly returned to the vents and updated Diana on the situation. 47 was going through the different possibilities of what could happen if something went wrong and making plans such as what would he do if the bomb didn't work or if people were on the other side of the entrance. The thoughts left his mind as he reached his destination to find that the room was unchanged. He slowly got out his lighter and the cloth and slightly opened the vent once the men weren't looking. The area lit in front of him when he lit his Zippo and spread the flame to the cloth. It landed on the ground without a sound and began to quickly smoke with an unpleasant sent.

One of the scientists began to cough as the smoke started to creep closer behind. He turned around and pointed at the smoke, "Fire!" He exclaimed. The four men began either trying to get out of the room or looking for something to extinguish the nonexistent flame. The room soon filled with enough smoke for 47 to enter unnoticed and made his way to the doctor, whom was grabbing a fire extinguisher by the machine.

When the doctor turned around he was greeted by the assassin who quickly stepped forward and brought a leg around his while he used his hand to push him over. The doctor was knocked back to the side of the machine's control panel. In a panic, he hit a button on it and stepped onto a large floor panel, followed by 47 with a knife in his hand. Dr. Woods attempted to push him off the panel but was met with a sharp pain in his gut.

The machine let out a low rumble as it started to activate, sparks danced around the two just as the others in the room noticed what was going on. There was a sudden white flash as 47 pulled out his knife while he tried to unholster his pistols, but blacked out and fell to the floor.

**Ten minutes later.**

The air around 47 was warm with plenty of sunlight shining in his face. 47 was lying on the ground while his senses were returning to him, the first was his hearing. "What happened to him?" He heard from an unknown voice. "He just passed out without warning." Came a reply from another. The second sense that came to him was touch, he could feel the hard ground beneath him along with someone loosening his tie and unbuttoning his shirt. Whoever these people were, they couldn't have been from the research plant or they would have just killed him.

Next came his sight; when he started opening his eyes, the area was blurry for about half a second. In front of him were three figures, two human paramedics and something that was definitely not from earth. Something that was definitely not from Earth. He kept his nerves in check and made sure not to panic at the sight of the unknown alien.

47 had never seen anything like it before it had mandibles running along its cheeks and had what looked like spikes running along the back of its elongated skull. 47 was preparing to strike so he could get away from what was happening but froze when it reached for his Silverballer pistol. "Look," he said, "I've never seen these kind of weapons."

That was the only thing the alien said before 47 grabbed his arm as it touched his gun. "That belongs to me." He said in a low voice before the threw a punch at his lower jaw and heard the satisfying sound of a bone cracking. The paramedics jumped back from the sudden movement while the alien fell over, which gave 47 his window for escape.

He rolled over and quickly got onto his feet before trying to run, but noticed that a crowd was around him who were watching what was going on. Glancing over the crowd he saw the faces of creatures he's never seen in all his life, some were short others were tall; some of them even looked exactly like humans. 47 didn't waste any more time to escape; he dashed thought the crowd and pushed anyone out of his way. While running, he buttoned up his shirt and fixed his tie then patted himself down to see if he still had all of his equipment; first he made sure he still had his Silverballers, then he checked his fiber wire, next he placed his hands on his hips and felt the P22G pistols were also in their correct place and he could still feel the weight of the G36C with the stock collapsed underneath his jacket. He gave a sigh of relief that everything was still there.

47 whipped around, making sure he wasn't being followed then stopped to get a sense of where he was. Looking around, it seemed as though he was at some kind of large city around him, various shops littered the streets each one selling a variety and services. There were also several hundreds of...people around him. It wasn't hard for him to spot that this wasn't just any kind of city, looking to the sky he could see four other large platforms all connected by a ring on the far side of the station. He still couldn't fathom what happened to him and the doctor for them to be transported here.

'Dr. Woods.' 47 thought, 'He came here with me, maybe he can tell me what was going on.' He took one step in no general direction before coming to a halt. 'Crap, I already stabbed him. He would be bleeding out by now, unless if someone found him and he got medical attention.'

47 needed to find a hospital and hope that they had Woods or at least could point him in the right direction, but first he would need directions. Out of all the species around him, humans seemed to be the least densely populated around him. Not being very picky at the moment, 47 went to one of the shops that were being operated by a very short creature who was wearing a suit that had a respirator. He walked up to the counter beside another alien who was wearing a purple suit as well but stood as high as a human and was armed with some type of gun of it's hip, making no effort to conceal it. As he got closer he was able to determine that it was female, at least by human standards, and seemed to be browsing merchandise on a console.

He was greeted by the employee with a friendly voice, but it was odd to him that it would always have to pause to take an exaggerated breath. "Hello human... Welcome to Elkoss Combine Arsenal Supplies... Do need help finding anything?"

"I'm actually looking for the nearest hospital; do you have a map of the area?" 47 stated to the alien. He also noticed that the other alien in the purple suit shifted her head a little more toward him as though she was listening in on them.

The merchant held up his arm to his chest level and activated some machine that projected an orange hologram around his arm. "I do have a map... I'll send it to your Omi-Tool if you want."

"I don't have one." 47 told him.

"Oh... I'm sorry... I don't have a physical map."

'Perfect.' 47 thought to himself. "Could you just point me in the right direction?"

The merchant took a breath and was about to speak but was interrupted by the alien right next to 47. "You said that you're on your way to the hospital? I'm headed in that direction, If you want I can lead you there." She said. 47 was able to get a better look at her once she spoke. The first thing he noticed was the semitransparent face plate that made her look like her eyes were glowing and that when she spoke, a small light would glow where her mouth would be. "I'm sorry, where are my manners? My name is Tali'Zorah." She said as she held out her three-fingered hand.

47 shook her hand in return and decided to use one of his previous aliases, "My name is Tobias, thank you for helping me."

**Hopefully this story will turn out alright. I would really love to have any feedback you might have on the story, positive or negative just let me know how to improve. **


	2. Chapter 2

**I want to thank everyone for all the feedback I've received from the first chapter, this is by far the most that I have gotten from a first chapter to any of my stories.**

"Have a nice day." The Volus said to the two of them as he waved goodbye. 47 was hoping to be able to get where he needed as quickly as possible and didn't want to participate in very much small talk with Tali, even though he had many questions about where he was.

"I have some questions I would like to ask you Miss Tali'Zorah." He said to his guide. He was thinking of ways to ask her about the station without it being too obvious that he wasn't from around here but he knew that it was going to be difficult to do so.

Tali just turned her head to him as they walked down a set of stairs onto a large platform. "You can just call me Tali; but sure, what would you like to ask?"

"I'm a little new to this area and I would like to know some basic things about it that would help me out."

"Do you mean this part of the Citadel or just in general?"

"Just the local area." While talking to her, 47 was glancing around the area in search of landmarks to make a mental map of the area.

"Well this part is called the Presidium; it's just like any other shopping center that's out there. This place sells anything form clothing to firearms and everything in between." As she talked, Tali would point out some of the various places that she would mention as well as talk about which places had the best prices.

47 just listened to all that she had to say, trying to absorb all the information that he could about the Citadel. He epically made note of a 'vid store' that Tali mentioned and would have to make a stop there to learn the history of this fascinating place. "Thank you again for showing me around." He told her.

"It's no problem; I have some business to take care of in the area anyway. So what exactly are you going to be doing at the hospital?" She asked then just as quickly added, "If you don't mind me asking of course."

Just as he has always done when something unexpected happens, 47 improvises an answer; but still being weary of what he says might come back to bite him in the ass later on. "I'm just looking around for a new family doctor and weighing my choices." Tali just continued to make as much small talk as possible as they walked towards their destination for the next twenty minutes.

The hospital's size made it stand out amongst the rest of the building be several stories higher, along with the large amount of traffic going through every direction of it. "Well, here we are." She said to him. "It was nice meeting you again Mr. Tobias."

"It was nice to meet you as well." 47 was about to reach into his pocket to pull out his wallet and pay her, but knew that the Citadel wouldn't take his currency. Instead, he held out his hand for a hand shake then went their separate ways.

47 stepped into the crowded lobby of the hospital and searched for a staff member or receptionist behind one of the large desk. Peering through the crowd, he spotted three staff members tending to a line of people either trying to get medicine seeking other types of medical attention. Although he was a patient man, he was also in a rush to find someone that could lead him to Woods. Deciding that it was better to wait, 47 stepped into the line and waited for his turn.

After waiting for more than thirty minutes, the line wasn't even half way done with the receptionist; 47 was starting to get annoyed with the slow pace they were moving at and was still uncomfortable with all of the aliens around him. Over to his left he spotted someone speaking to what seemed to be a hologram of one of the aliens those he has seen on the Citadel. He could hear the person asking the hologram about one of the patients and their room number and decided that this would be a better alternative than standing in line.

"Hello, thank you for using Avina. How may I help you?" It said to him in a computerized voice.

"I'm searching for a patient who might go by the name of Woods."

The VI blinked twice before giving 47 an answer. "I'm sorry, no one has been checked in by that name. Searching alternate sites: I have found a human by the name of Woods on one of the other wings of the Citadel." He was glad to hear the news and immediately started thinking of how to get there but his mood took a turn for the worse when the VI spoke again. "According to hospital records, he was released five hours and fifteen minutes ago after treatment to a minor stabbing wound."

'How could he have been released an hour ago?' 47 thought to himself. 'I've been here for only two hours so something must have happened to make us appear at separate times.' 47 needed an alternate plan to find Woods. "Do you have a name on any of the doctors that helped him?"

Avina blinked twice again before speaking, "One of the surgeons was called to this location to assist treatment of a Turian. His name is Doctor Maelon but is currently unavailable."

47 left without another word to the VI, he would need a way to find Maelon undetected and knew what to do; He also wanted to talk about him classifying his work as a 'minor stabbing wound'. He saw that the main entry way to the rest of the hospital was guarded and would only allow someone through if they had special permission or had signed-up for visiting hours.

Exiting the building, he made a full circle around the hospital and looked for any kind of point of entry whether it was a door, loading area, window, or just another air vent. He found three different options after making his circle and took some time to think of the best course of action; the first one was simple, finding a staff member and taking their disguise. He immediately through that idea out the window because with the unknown technology, they might have a new way of identification.

The second was to get into the building through the area where they would transport patients into the hospital either by sneaking past personnel or finding another way of getting past unnoticed.

The final way was to attempt to scale the side of the building and to get in through either the roof or hope for an open window or equivalent. He also gave up on this idea because of the lack of knowledge on things like the layout of the building, the doctor's location, and various types of security.

After deciding to go with plan b, 47 traveled to the side of the building and stayed out of sight behind some crates while he waited for an ambulance to show up. He didn't have to wait long before one came speeding over a few hundred feet away from him. 47 sprinted over to one of the nurses that were on stand-by and acted as though he had received a call from saying that his friend was injured and pointed to the human that was taken off the ambulance.

The nurse bought his story and allowed him to stay by the stretcher as they quickly wheeled in the unconscious patient into the hospital. 47 glanced over the human and saw several deep cuts and an arm that was clearly broken; he guessed that he was in some kind of crash. It seemed as though everyone was in a constant rush to get something done, it was a hospital after all so it was going to be a challenge to find Maelon.

It was easy to get away from everyone once they went into the operating room and to start asking around for Maelon. He started by going around searching for anyone who might work alongside him, nurses, assistants, along with some office workers upstairs who could point him in the right direction. The only information that he found out about him was from another surgeon that he was a 'Salarian' and that he's operating on a Turian but would be able to see him in a little while on the thirteenth floor.

47 rode the elevator alone to his destination and stepped past an Asari, as Tali mentioned them earlier. He walked around and looked at everyone's name tag, searching for Maelon, still not knowing what a Salarian was. 'I really hope he's done by now; I want to get out of here as soon as possible.' He thought to himself, not wanting to waste much time. Suspecting that he was still too early, he asked around if anyone knew where Maelon was; 47 was pointed over to one of the operating rooms and saw another alien standing right outside of it, looking over a data pad in his hands.

'Dr. H. Maelon' his nametag read. 47 walked calmly over to him and said, "Excuse me, are you doctor Maelon?"

"Yes, how can I help you?" He said while he continued to scroll through his data pad.

"I was told that you operated on a man by the name of Woods." 47 pulled out a photo that was sent to him by Diana before he went on his assignment and gave it to Maelon.

The Salarian took the photo and examined it for a little while before handing it back. "Yes I did; he should be fine right now. Why do you ask?"

"I'm his insurance agent and he may have sent a false claim. I wanted to speak to you about his surgery and where he might have gone."

"Well I don't know about any past claims he might have made but all that I did was repair his stomach from a knife wound. From what I read he came stumbling into some corner store while holding his hands to his belly asking for an ambulance."

"Do you know where he went after he was released?"

"No." Maelon's data pad suddenly started beeping, "I'm sorry that I can't help you right now. Duty calls." He said as he walked off.

47 concealed his boiling anger and walked out of the hallway. 'Another dead end; at least I can still find the store he went into.' 47 made his way through the area without making eye contact with the humans and aliens he shoved out of his way. 'Where the hell am I supposed to find this guy if that is just as bad of a lead as this one?' He made his way into one of the crowded elevators and waited impatiently to reach his floor.

The rest of the occupants exited with him on the ground floor and made their way into the lobby. Walking outside, 47 knew he had three problems now; which store Woods went to, how he was going to get back home, and where he could get some food and shelter.

**Again, thank you for any and all feedback. For anyone that has read some of my other stories and knows about my enlistment into the Air Force, I may be joining the United States Coast Guard because I've been waiting so long to get my contract. Just to let you know. Please leave a review or PM me if you have any questions.**


	3. Chapter 3

47 had been walking through the streets searching for a way to be able to get information about the store that Woods stumbled into. He checked news broadcast that lined the streets, went into different stores to see if they had heard about him; He has been at this for the past couple of hours and decided that he needed to have some time to clear his head and to think about the day's events and to come up with a plan.

Crowds were not the place that would suit his needs so he set off to find a more secluded place to just be able to sit down for a while. After back tracking to where he saw a park-like area then searched for a place to relax. 47 just took his time to take a stroll along side the pavement and get a more of a sense of what kind of environment he was thrown into. As he walked at a slow pace, 47 looked around particularly at the interaction between the various species, either between themselves or others.

He had begun becoming familiar with some of the different species from what others have told him; the only species that he was somewhat familiar with were the Turians, the Volus merchant, and the Quarian who helped him earlier, and the Salarians because of the doctor, but none of the other races that he has seen. Looking upon the area, 47 watched as some human children were playing a game with another Turian child as what he thought were the parents, were talking to each other nearby. While off to his left, he could see one of the bluish looking humans walking with another alien that was much taller than it and looked like a reptile.

To him it seemed as though despite the inter species mix; the different races were able to co-exist comfortably even though he didn't know if he could do the same as them. The Citadel seemed to a much more peaceful place than what he was used to; if he had to stay here for a while, finding work would be difficult, not just for not finding someone that would need his skill set, but he had no type of identification or anything that he would need to get settled in.

A few hours later

After spending the rest of the afternoon walking around the park while trying to think about what the next step to take, he decided that it was time to call it a day. 47 looked at his watch to check the time, it displayed '11:30 pm'. He knew that he had no place to stay for the night and no source of food. Stealing wasn't an option for him at the moment because he didn't know what different types of security there was on the Citadel but he just might try it if he needed to later on.

Over on his right, there was an empty bench for him to take a rest. Sitting down, he rubbed his forehead with both his hands as he let out a sigh. This wouldn't be the first time that he would have to sleep on a bench in an unfamiliar place; he's had to do this plenty of times while on certain assignments, but being around aliens was going to be...different to him. 47 propped himself to the far left of the bench so he would sit up while he slept and then started to close his eyes.

* * *

Business started to clear up for Tali at the Wards; it all comprised of things like trade, transportation, investors, and contractors for rebuilding Rannoch. This was one of the jobs that Tali wanted to oversee the most to make sure that she was getting the best supplies back to the repurposed fleet.

Once her work was done, she decided that it was time to go back to her hotel to get some rest before she left the Citadel the next afternoon. Her hotel was only a fifteen minute walk from the wards and had to cut through the park to avoid some of the areas that C-Sec had a harder time controlling.

After taking an elevator down, she checked the time on her Omni-tool and was surprised at how long it took. 'At least I can get some sleep tonight.' She thought to herself, anticipating the bed that was waiting for her. Sleep was one thing that she was getting used to not having as an admiral; it was difficult adjustment when she first accepted it but now that the years have given her practice, it was a luxury to her now.

She was thinking about other things that needed to be done with Rannoch as she walked down a side walk, humming a song to herself. She loved evenings like this, quiet, peaceful, and having a good feeling about her work and what she was doing.

Tali slowed down slightly as she passed by a lonesome bench that was occupied by a familiar face. "Mr. Tobias?" She asked. His eyes slowly opened and adjusted his posture when he saw Tali standing in front of him. "Oh, I'm sorry I didn't know that you fell asleep."

"Its fine, I guess I just lost track of the time." He said, knowing full well what he was doing.

"Yeah I just got done at the wards and was on my way back home and I saw you on the bench and just wanted to say hi." She was talking faster than she normally was, likely just because she was tired from working.

47 got up and stretched his back. "Well thank you for waking me up. I'll hopefully see you another time."

"Same to you. Well good night." She said as 47 waved then walked down the side walk. He was going the way she came. 'Wait a minute.' She thought. 'There isn't any housing that way and what was he even doing sleeping on the bench this late?' She then started walking after him and called out to him, "Wait!"

47 turned to face her, wondering why she stopped him. He really didn't feel like talking to anyone at the moment; he wanted to get some sleep for the next morning. "What it is?" He asked.

"Where are you going?" Tali asked with her arms crossed.

"I'm going to go get some sleep at home."

"Is your house in that direction?" She questioned.

"Yes." 47 replied without hesitation.

Tali could easily tell that he was lying to her just by what she knew about the area and not by his body language. "I'm going to ask you one more time, and you had better not lie to me this time. Do you have a place to sleep tonight?"

Her tone was very serious when she asked the question. 47 didn't know what he should do at the moment; he would have rather stayed by himself to find out where Woods was, but he also knew that Tali could help him 'get on his feet' even for the first night. "No, I do not."

"Come with me." Tali ordered him immediately.

47 walked along side her, still wondering why she was being so kind to him. He wasn't a stranger to kindness, but as he was used to, it normally ended up as one favor for another rather than just a random act of kindness. "Thank you." He said in a low voice.

When she looked at him he tried to get a read on her, even though he could only use her tone of voice and the way her eyes moved. He wanted to know if she was really just helping because she could or if there was any kind of catch that was used on the Citadel. "You should have asked for help." She said to him. 47 still couldn't tell.

* * *

Tali opened the door for her guest to her hotel room which had a single bed, couch, one bathroom, and a large window that had a beautiful view of the presidium. "Well here we are." She said as she closed the door behind them. "If you go wash up in the bathroom I can set some sheets and blankets up on the couch."

"I still can't thank you enough for what you're doing Tali." He told her. "If there is anything that I can do for you then just ask."

"It's really no trouble at all, I do this every once in a while." While 47 looked at the place, Tali went up behind him and put her hands on his shoulders and grabbed the collar of his coat. "I'll hang this up over the couch while you get cleaned."

47 turned around fast enough so that she wouldn't be able to take off his coat but slow enough that he wouldn't appear to be rude. "Here, it'll get it while I'm in the bathroom." He told her.

"Ok. Just give it to me when you're ready." She then walked away to get some sheets while 47 went into the bathroom.

While looking into the mirror, he took off his coat and draped it over a towel rack then took a minute to stare at what Tali would have seen; an automatic rifle, four hand guns (two suppressed) a throwing knife, and piano fiber wire. He just tried to imagine what would have happened if she had seen any of that, he was just thankful that the G36 was a custom short barrel and the stock collapsed so that he could hide it better under his attire. He wasn't even sure if it was that unusual for people to carry weapons out in the open, Tali did carry what looked like a shotgun on her hip which still made him uneasy.

He then took off all of his equipment silently then got finished undressing. Tali soon knocked on the door and asked for his clothes so that she could get them cleaned by the hotel and get him some replacements. After hiding his weapons under the couch and bed, he stepped into the shower and turned on the hot water.

Watching the dirty water fall off his body and down the drain, 47 thought about how he was going to get back to Earth if at all. The only way that he could was to get to Woods before he could possibly leave without him.

All that he did in the shower was soap down quickly then dry himself off as much as he could so he could get out as soon as Tali got back with some fresh clothes. It only took her a few minutes to get back and knock on the bathroom door then handing him clothes from outside the door. A white shirt, shorts, and underwear was what was given to him, not that he was complaining.

After getting dressed, he opened the door to find Tali watching the TV while lying on her bed. It still surprised him that she was so willing to help him by giving him a place to stay and some new clothes.

Tali watched him enter the room and looked at his legs and saw all the scars from the cuts and wounds that he accumulated over the years. "What happened to you?" She asked.

47 looked down at his legs and saw what she was referring to. He was so used to the scars that he had covering his body that he didn't even think about covering them up. He didn't answer her question right away, he just stood there and looked at them; each one of them had a story to tell someone either an early mistake he made in his career or a lucky bullet or knife got to him. He then gave her another made up story about them, "A few years ago I was in a wreck; I had several cuts, bruises, and broken ribs." He started to say, "The real reason that I went to the hospital was that I was trying to get them to lower my bill. I didn't have much money to start out with and the bill was too much to pay off."

Tali then got off the bed and started to walk over to 47, "I'm sorry to hear that happened to you." She then did something that he didn't expect her to do; she wrapped her arms around him in a tight hug and didn't let go until he returned it. Even afterwards she held on for a few more seconds before letting go. "I'm serious; if you want I can do something that can help you out for the next few days."

"I appreciate the offer, but what you've done was already enough."

"Ok," She said. "Well it's time for some sleep; if you want any other blankets just let me know." They both want over to their beds and turned off the lights. 47 stayed up for a little while longer so he could again plan for the next day on how he was going to find Woods, and make him take them home.

**That took a little longer than expected. I blame finals but at least I'm almost done. I would like to thank all those that continue to give me feedback and I will do my best to make those adjustment, especially the length of the chapters. **


	4. Chapter 4

As 47 began to open his eyes, he expected to wake up back at one of his homes on Earth but dreadfully remembered that he was on the Citadel. He peeked over his shoulder to see if Tali was still asleep on the bed before he got up himself. As he sat up to check on her, he saw that she was sitting on the bedside and staring out the window that overlooked the presidium. Tali didn't seem to notice him waking up and just decided to sit there.

"Good morning." He said to Tali. 'Did she really stay in her suit the entire night?' He thought to himself, not knowing much about Quarians.

"Good morning." She replied.

47 didn't waste time to start getting dressed for his hunt and grabbed his suit and went into the bathroom to change. After he put his clothes on, he realized that getting his equipment from under the bed was going to be a challenge especially putting his holsters on under the coat. He stepped outside to find Tali already packing her things in a suit case, most of which included what looked like cleaning kits and a bunch of documents.

Tali just looked up at him and said, "The hotel's check out is in thirty minutes. I'm sorry that I can't do anything else to help you." Tali had just finished zipping up her suitcase and went into the bathroom giving 47 the chance he needed to start pulling his stuff out from underneath the bed silently. "I have to go back to Rannoch to help rebuild." She shouted from inside the bathroom while 47 frantically took off his coat and started to put his holsters on, starting with his Silverballers.

"It's ok. I still want to thank you for your hospitality." He said back to her. He had just finished putting the P22Gs inside of his belt slide holsters and looked to see if Tali was still in the bathroom, not that it would have mattered if she was standing there watching him if he didn't look.

Tali was still checking her veil in the mirror, getting the creases out, and making sure that she looked presentable before they left. "Like I said before, it was no trouble at all."

47 had the G36 along with the custom concealment holster and started to put it on. "But what if I wanted to repay you?" All that he was doing was trying to buy time to get everything he needed before Tali was done. "I could walk you there if you want."

Tali thought about it a little, she knew that he insisted to repay her for what she did but didn't want him to. 'All he wants to do is walk you to the shuttle.' She thought to herself, 'He just wants to thank you'. "Ok, if you want to." Once she was done fixing her attire, she left the bathroom and saw that 47 was just sitting on the bed while waiting on her. "But if you want, I can get us something to eat before we get there."

"Ok, thank you." 47 replied. He got up on his feet then they both walked out the door together and walked to the elevator. As they rode down the eleven stories to the ground level, 47 asked Tali about the construction on Rannoch and just acted as though he knew about recent events, still being sure he never said the wrong thing that would lead to suspicion.

They just talked all about Rannoch as they left the hotel and were walking towards the docking. 47 just listened and asked as many questions as he could so he got as much information as he could. Even though he dreaded being there, he couldn't deny that the place was very interesting and had a very long history. Tali would talk about their future plans and expansion, along with repurposing the fleet for hauling supplies and trading with other races and colonies.

During their walk, 47 was looking around for different types of transportation that could get him to a different part of the Citadel. The rest of the walk was spent talking about anything that came to mind with no real subject; this went on until they reached a restaurant that Tali had picked out and went inside.

The staff immediately recognized Tali and greeted her by name; they exchanged greetings then Tali introduced him to one of the Turian cashiers that came up to them. She explained to 47 that the place was owned by a friend of hers and that they could eat for free. They were both seated at a table for two that was located on the restaurant's balcony instead of sitting inside.

Looking of to his right, 47 could see rows of buildings that went on alongside of a large lake that the balcony overlooked. While they were both looking at their menus (a levo to 47 and a dextro to Tali) , 47 kept an eye on the different people that were seated around him just as he normally does. There was a group of four humans that were two tables down from them along with three Salarians that were eating by the door to the restaurant.

"And what will you be having?" The human waiter asked 47, breaking his train of thought.

He scanned the menu one last time before picking he actually recognized amongst the other choices. "I'll get the chicken stir fry without anything to drink." The waiter nodded and took both of their menus back with them.

The time that they spent waiting was spent talking about her friend who owned a chain of different restaurants including this one; she said that it was owned by a man named Jacob who used to be a former team member of hers. She told him that ever since he left Cerberus he became decided to retire and to use the money that the Alliance gave him to buy these places while he raised his daughter. 47 still didn't know what Cerberus or the Alliance was so he just played along like he was earlier.

As she was speaking, he noticed that the group of four humans were eying them both suspiciously and it looked as if they were making remarks about them both; he continued to watch them every once in a while as he spoke to Tali because after being a professional killer for most of his life, he knew when something wasn't right. If it were just one person, he wouldn't have paid as much attention to it but when four people are doing it together it didn't seem right.

Another thing that made him cautious was that they didn't stop after a while, even when their food came out they was still talk about her; even though he couldn't hear them clearly, he thought himself how to read lips in his line of work and decided to let Tali know about what was going on. "I think that you might have a bit of a fan base going on behind you." He told her.

Tali shifted in her seat to look at them then turned back to him. "Don't mind them. This happens every now and then." He was still wary about them eying them but decided listen to Tali.

The waiter came out a few minutes afterwards with their food along with a blue drink for Tali. 47 looked at the food that she ordered, if he could call it that; it was just a tube full of paste while his food came out looking like it would from any dine-in place on Earth. Tali just opened a slot on her helmet and started eating so he thought it was normal for it to come like that.

47 started eating his food and started another conversation about why she would carry her gun with her all the time. "What kind of gun do you have on your hip?"

Tali cleared her throat before speaking, "It's the M-27 Scimitar, I prefer to carry shotguns." She then set down her food and took the shotgun off of her hip then made sure that it was unloaded with the safety on. "Would you like to see it?"

He was surprised that she offered him her gun; if a homeless man asked to hold any of his weapons he would have just gotten far away from him. But to see someone offer their gun to him really showed him how different gun laws were. "Sure." He told her. She handed the weapon to 47 then continued to eat. He inspected it closely, admiring how unique it was but didn't like how it was so bulky for its short length and only having a pistol grip with no butt stock. Without knowing the recoil of the weapon, this would not be a shotgun he would choose to use in the field, much less conceal. After looking it over a few more times, he handed it back to Tali and continued eating his food.

Then something about the group of humans caught his eye, one of them looked like he had just gotten a call from someone and held his hand up to his ear while the others were listening with very serious expressions. One of them was sweating profusely, another was shaking a bit in anticipation, the third was calm and eying them down and the fourth was constantly looking back at the same bush that was right next to him. "Ok." 47 heard him say. At once they all got up and walked over to them, two of them keeping their hands at their waist level instead of letting them swing.

47 had seen this enough to know what was going on so he got up and walked in between the group and Tali who gave him a strange look, questioning what he was doing. As he predicted, one of the men drew a pistol and aimed it right at 47's chest at point blank range. "Step aside if you want to live." He said while two of the others drew their pistols and the fourth guy pulled a rifle out of the bush that he was staring at. Tali also had a gun pointed at her but stood behind the table and 47.

47 held his hands up and said, "What's going on?" 47 made sure that he was lined up with another one of them while he spoke. "What do you want?"

"Just listen to them." Tali said.

The human who was in front of 47 motioned for one of his crew to go to Tali then said, "I'm giving you one last chance. Go now or I will-" He was cut off when 47 slammed his left hand into the man's wrist and pulled him forward to use his body as a shield, also making him unbalanced while he used his right hand to grab the barrel of the gun and push it to the side to clear the man's finger of the trigger. He then used the barrel as a lever to rip it from his hand then took a step back while being mindful to make sure that the man was in the line of fire from someone else.

During this, the man that was sent to Tali looked back at them while 47 was disarming the man in front of him. Tali took her chance and gave him a swift kick to the groin and pulled out her shotgun then slammed the side of it into his temple. Afterwards she quickly flipped the table she was standing behind, took cover and loaded her shotgun.

47 corrected his grip on the pistol and fired at the man with the rifle who started to fire at Tali, the rounds hit their target but it seemed to him that he had some kind of shielding and the man took cover. Then the one who he disarmed threw a kick at him that struck his hip but 47 quickly wrapped his left arm around his leg. He pulled his leg closer into him, again messing with his balance but also putting him in something called 'conditional stability' if he remained like this he could hold his balance and try to strike him again or break free. He then followed up by taking his leg and swept him from behind the attacker's other leg and drove him to the ground.

As he fell, 47 raised the gun and fired repeatedly at the one who was behind him until he broke through his shields and killed him. He then pointed the gun down at the initial attacker but the gun was empty so he dropped the gun and got behind cover with Tali. "Who are these guys?" 47 asked.

"You think I know?" She replied while wishing that he didn't drop his gun. "I can distract these two while you run."

47 ignored her last remark and took out one of his P22Gs and flipped the safety off. Tali looked at him questioningly as she saw him with his handgun. "Where did you get that?" She shouted over the gunfire from the man equipped with his rapid-fire rifle.

"I can explain later; just draw his fire while I circle around." 47 peaked around the corner and saw the guy whom he disarmed, got another pistol from his teammate and had already taken a well covered position.

Just as he instructed Tali, she began firing her shotgun, giving 47 the distraction he needed to run towards the left and started to fire at the man with the rifle. Unlike the first pistol he used, his round cut through the shields much easier but still taking a few shots to drop them completely; three more shots in the chest brought him to the dropped his target to the ground.

That just left the one with the pistol who wasn't firing at them at all. 47 signaled for Tali to get up and circle around to the other side while he did the same on his. He held up three fingers and counted down when Tali acknowledged him.

Three... two... one... they both moved at the same time and aimed their weapons at the human who held up his hands with his gun on the ground. "Kick it over here!" Tali shouted at him. He obeyed by sending it her way with his right foot. Tali picked it up and saw that he had ran out of ammo then holstered it on her thigh.

47 didn't waste time and went up to him and grabbed him by the wrist then put him into an arm lock and applied pressure so that the attacker could feel everything in his shoulder. The man started screaming as the pain intensified and never eased. 47 put his face right next to his for intimidation and said, "If you like where your shoulder is then I would start talking."

He didn't need much more convincing, "Ok, I'll talk." He was expecting 47 to let off the pressure but was going to be very disappointed.

"Who sent you?"

"Eclipse, we were told that Tali was going to be here and to kill her but to take her alive if possible."

Tali didn't like what she was hearing from this merc, she decided it was time to ask her question, "Who hired you?"

"I don't know I wasn't told." It was then that 47 dislocated his arm with one swift motion followed by screaming. "I told you I don't know!" he shouted. "I'm just a grunt, they don't tell me these things."

"Ok, let him go." Tali told 47 who released him. "Come on we need to get out of here before more of them show up." 47 then went up behind him and brought his arm around his neck and tucked his elbow underneath his chin while he pulled back. Tali saw this then shouted, "What are you doing? Don't kill him."

"I'm not." He replied bluntly. He knew how to make someone black out, all he needed to do was cut off blood flow to the brain by applying pressure to the carotid arteries for ten seconds, if he wanted to kill him then he would just wait a bit longer. The man soon went limp and 47 set him down on the ground. "He'll live I just made him pass out."

Tali looked down at the merc then back up to 47. "Who are you really?"

**I may already have a plan of how I'm going to write this story but I've still made plenty of room for suggestions and I would really like to hear anything that anyone would like to say about it. I would also like to say that I've officially gotten an Air Force D.E.P. discharge and in the process of joining the United States Coast Guard, just letting everyone know.**


	5. Chapter 5

47 holstered his pistol and secured it in place. "Come on, we have to get out of here." He said as he entered the restaurant with Tali close behind him.

Tali increased her pace a little to get right beside him. "Wait." She said. "You still haven't answered my question." 47 ignored her as they exited through the front entrance and into the busy street; he was darting his eyes all around, keeping aware of his surroundings especially at the people that were walking up and down the streets. Tali knew he wasn't listening and grabbed his arm. "Tobias!" she said to 47 who turned to stare at her.

He grabbed her hand and pulled it away from his arm then looked directly into her helmet and into her eyes. "Listen, we don't have time to talk about this; that guy back there said that they were told that we were going to be there and they were waiting for us. That means that someone was following us and was likely close enough to listen in on us talking."

Tali rubbed the side of her head and slowly breathed out. She was still getting over the adrenaline rush; although she was used to the gunfights from her days with Sheppard, she was still frightened that someone was targeting her. "Ok. Thank you for what you did back there."

"We can't stay here; they may send others when they find out that the team failed." They both started walking at a brisk pace with Tali leading them while they both were looking out for any more Eclipse mercenaries. 47 was being much more subtle than Tali as he scanned the area; making sure that he didn't make too much head movement so it didn't seem that he was actively looking for anyone and he only turned around when he bumped into someone and used that as an excuse. He also made sure that he would use the crowds to conceal him but had to constantly make sure that Tali was right next to him when he did so.

Tali, on the other hand was very paranoid and she showed by doing the exact opposite as he was. If 47 were on a regular contract and the target was acting like her, he would be able to spot her easily; he knew that if he wanted them to get to the docks without being attacked again then he would have to calm her down on even with something as simple as talking to her. "Tali I need you to listen to me." He told her.

She got closer to him so she could listen to him without as much noise from the crowd. "What is it? Did you see anything?" she asked worriedly.

"No, but I need you to calm down before you draw attention to yourself." He said in a low voice. "You want to know who I really am right."

"Well it not every day that you see a homeless man on the Citadel that has combat training and carries weapons that belong in a gun museum. So yes, I do want to know." Her voice was still in a very panicked state and her hands were shaking as she spoke.

47 then took a single look around him for anything out of the ordinary then turned back to Tali. "I don't know what passes for sounding crazy but I'm going to be honest. I don't know exactly how, but I was transported here along with a man by the name of Dr Woods. I was at his lab while he was working on a machine that he activated, I'm not sure that sending us here was intentional or not but I'm trying to find him so he can take us back." He looked back at her and saw that she wasn't paying much attention to him and was still looking around. "Tali, did you hear me?"

"Huh?" she said looking back at him, "Oh yes. About the machine and the doctor, yes I could hear you."

47 was getting annoyed at her constant searching. "Tali you have to stop looking around, that's something that will give you away."

"OK, I'll try." She stated. "So that doesn't explain why you're carrying that gun with you."

"It's not the only one I'm carrying, but now isn't the time to answer that." He really didn't want anyone that he was a hitman if they didn't need to know. "How much farther away are the docks?" He asked her.

"They're not too far away, just a few more minutes away." She answered. "So after you got here were you both separated?"

The conversation went on about what happened leading up to 47 going to the hotel with Tali. He saw that the conversation was starting to work in his favor, she wasn't as worried about looking around or she just didn't show it; 47 however still kept lookout for anything.

"There it is!" Tali exclaimed as they approached the docks but they both could see the unmistakable black smoke rise from the center of the area. Tali began to fear the worse as she started to pick up her pace into a jogging pace.

47 increased his speed to match hers; he knew that she was extremely worried about the smoke but he knew that this was a set up because he had done the same thing before as a lure for one of his targets. "Tali, you need to slow down." He instructed her to which she ignored. "Tali." He said again to no avail. As she picked up her pace once again 47 grabbed her by the arm and forced her to stop. "Tali you need to stop and listen to me."

She tried to fight his grip and to his surprise was almost able to break it. "Let me go!" she shouted.

"You need to listen to me."

"Why should I? You've been lying to me so why should I?" She shouted at him but nobody in the docks seemed to notice because they were too busy staring at the fires that engulfed some of the ships.

"They're your people right? Can't you at least try to contact them and make sure that they're ok?" 47 suggested.

"Let go of me first." She said in a threatening voice that didn't affect 47.

47 did as she asked and said to her, "I need you to stay in the crowd while I go scout ahead." After she gave him a confirmation he took off towards the source of the fires; he estimated that they were only four hundred yards away but still went as fast as he could.

As he neared his destination he could start to hear gunfire and people screaming and running away. He stood his ground as the crowds ran past him, some of them running into him; as soon as he was able to, he made his way to the source and saw two factions fighting each other. On one side were soldiers in blue armor firing at a group of brown soldiers that were in brownish yellow armor and were taking cover inside the ships. And right outside the entrance to the ships was a row of dead Quarians, they were a public execution.

From what he saw, he could assume that the ones that were inside the ship were Eclipse that were more than likely looking for Tali before she could leave; 47 knew that these ships weren't going to be an option for Tali so he made his way back to where he left her.

Finding her wasn't hard at all; he found her hiding amongst a group of crates, alone. When he approached her all he had to do was wave to get her attention to let her know to come out. "I thought I told you to hide in the crowd." He told her as they walked up to each other.

"I was until I saw two Eclipse mercs start walking through them." She said. "I was able to contact one of the ships; they left once they found out that some of the others were under attack. They said that they will try to land for us but their needs to be a secure landing area for us and hopefully C-Sec will help us with that."

"Are they the ones in the blue armor?" 47 asked, hoping that they were the ones he saw fighting Eclipse.

"Yes they are." Tali responded. "They sent me the docking number they will be at so we need to start heading over to dock F-74." She pointed over to the right towards their destination.

They both started running their through the cargo area without another word. 47 looked up to see a large sign that said 'F-35'. They still had a long way to run. As they ran, they past by several C-Sec officers that were keeping an eye out for anymore attacks; with that 47 knew that it would be difficult for any Eclipse to get past them without being noticed.

Tali then spoke up about when 47 had left her to scout ahead, "Tobias, what exactly did you see back there?"

He looked over his shoulder and slowed down slightly so that she was by his side. "When I got there I saw C-Sec fighting Eclipse, they had them surrounded but they to shelter inside the ships." He refrained from telling her that he saw her people dead out there but he was also sure that they had hostages inside as well. "I couldn't tell how many of them were let but we shouldn't go back there because that's where they expected us to be at."

"I understand but I shouldn't be running from them; Rannoch is expecting those supplies to get there soon."

"They're also expecting you to be there as well, but if you go back there then there isn't any guarantee that you'll be there." Those words made Tali go quite.

47 looked back up and looked for the nearest sign to see how far they were away. 'F-57' one of the signs said. Another thing that he saw was that the number of C-Sec officers was thinning as they ran. 47 knew that there wasn't going to be any reasonable number of officers once they got there.

Tali then activated her Omni-Tool and made a call to the ship that was waiting for them, "This is Tali'Zorah calling the Proditorem, can anyone aboard hear me?" 'Proditorem' 47 guessed was the name of the ship.

They only waited a few second before they got an answer. "I hear you Tali, are you almost here?" The male Quarian said.

"Yes, have the engines ready for take-off." She said over the Omni-Tool in a very tired voice.

"We are ready whenever you are."

47 could see how tired she was getting from all the running but knew that they couldn't slow down. He then looked up again and saw another sign. 'F-72' they were almost there.

"I can see it from here." Tali exclaimed.

They could see the sign that showed where they were docked but 47 saw something else, as they were running he noticed that there were two large crates that were placed on either side of the path that they were running. It was a simple trick to have two people placed on either side so they could shoot someone as they ran past you if they were running blindly. 47 both picked up his pace to run past Tali and got out his set of Silverballer pistols.

He then aimed them both to either side of his as he ran out only a few feet in front of the crates and looked both ways as he did so. He saw that there was only one Eclipse merc that held a rifle but had it aimed farther out in front of 47, expecting him to keep running instead of just coming to a complete stop. 47 fired with just the single pistol incase if someone else tried to flank him so he would already have a gun pointed at them. He only had to fire five times before he killed his target.

Tali however had a harder time slowing down from the sudden stop and ran into him, knocking them both over. As they both stumbled to get up, two other Eclipse members rushed them neither of them were using guns, they were both armed with taser-like batons. They were told to take Tali alive if possible and 47 guessed that the one that was hiding was for C-Sec or to distract them as these two got into position. Tali and 47 both got up but when Tali hit him he had dropped his guns and was forced to go hand to hand while Tali got out her shotgun.

Both of the mercs had split up to take them both out, the one that went after 47 had the baton in his right hand. Instead of backing up, 47 went forward as he swung the weapon at a wide angle. 47 grabbed the inside of the wrist then just as quickly closed the distance between them and delivered a strike to the man's jaw with the front of his elbow instead of punching him. 47 then followed up by striking him again with the back of his elbow into the temple instead. But by using the boney tip of his elbow in this quick double strike to the face, this move could result with a broken nose, facial fractures, but in this case, a large cut to the side of his face and a broken jaw and knocking him out completely.

He then looked over to his left to see that Tali had already killed her attacker; they were both about to run but stopped when they saw a rocket soar through the air and hit the hull of the Proditorem. "No." Tali said in disbelief. It would take more than a single rocket to destroy the ship but it soon came under fire by more rockets.

"Tali, this is the Proditorem. We can't stay here much longer. Are you almost here?" The Quarian said over her Omni-Tool. They both looked at the Proditorem and saw that there were at least ten more soldiers blocking their path and they had no way to take out the ones equipped with rockets.

She looked at 47 who was picking his guns off of the ground. She was looking to him for an answer but he gave her an empty stare, telling her to make a decision. She then pressed a button on the tool and said, "Proditorem, I want you to get out of here and regroup with the rest of the cargo vessels while I find another way."

"Understood, were heading out." He replied.

Tali watched as the Proditorem's engines roared at the vessel lifted off the ground and left the Citadel. They both then took cover and made their way away from the area without being seen.

Once they were several blocks away from the docks, Tali forced them both to sit down and talk about what was going on. "Ok now I want answers and I want the truth."

47 just stared at her as if he was testing her patience but decided that she needed to know. "Ok, I'll talk. First off my name isn't Tobias. I was never given a name at birth I was only given a number." He then turned his head so that the back was facing her; he then pointed to the barcode tattoo that was printed on the back of his skull specifically the numbers. "This was given to me as a child. The numbers at the bottom was their only way to tell us apart."

Tali ran her fingers along the numbers on the tattoo. 640509-040147 is what it said. "What do the numbers mean?" she asked.

"The first six digits are my birthday; September the fifth in the year of sixty five. The next two digits, zero four is what series I was; then the next two, zero one was my class. And the last two forty-seven was the order that I was cloned and it's also my name."

Tali removed her hand and brought it back down to her side. "You're a clone?" she asked. 47 nodded in confirmation. "And your name is forty-seven?" He nodded again. "What were you cloned for?"

"I was created from several different killers' DNA so that I would become a better killer. They wanted the perfect assassin or as they call me, hitman." He paused before saying the title that put fear in grown men. "I'm sorry that I couldn't tell you earlier."

Tali sighed and took a moment to think before she spoke. "I have um... I know someone that can help you find this doctor Woods if you want."

47 knew something was up, "What's the catch?"

"I need to find out who is trying to kill me and I need to be protected until then." She said. She then held out her hand. "Do we have a deal?"

47 didn't take so long to make up his mind, he reached out and took her hand and shook it. "Deal."

**That update might have been a lot quicker but I cant say for sure that it will always be like this. But a way to encourage me to keep it like this would be to leave feedback, I haven't gotten much but I'm still thankful for those whom have.**


	6. Chapter 6

The first thing that 47 instructed for them to do was to relocate as far as they could to on the Citadel. It took them most of the day to travel from sky car to sky car to create as much confusion as possible if someone was following them. They ended on a completely different wing then the one they had started on and 47 was looking around for a place that they could stay the night so Tali could contact whomever she needed to; 47 didn't want any call being made in public.

Because 47 didn't have any money, Tali had to pay for everything from food to taxi fees; she didn't mind for a few reasons: one, 47's instructions were going to keep her alive, the second was because the Quarian fleet paid her well to be an admiral and sent her money regularly, well did. 47 had her drain her account as much as she could into physical credits, then he broke her credit chit saying that any transaction that they made on that could be tracked just like a debit or credit card on Earth.

He even had her purchase two new Omni-Tools at one of their stops, one for him and the other for her; he then had her transfer all of her contacts and any critical information she had on her original into her new one, then broke the original tool saying the same thing that he did when he broke her chit. She was only able to get the contacts, tech programs, and Chatika from it.

47 picked out a very cheap motel for them to stay at and paid for a single nights stay in a three person room because if suspected them to stay here they would start to look in two person rooms. When asked for a name, 47 told the receptionist his name was Edward Ramsey, another alias that he had prepared. He and Tali entered the room and didn't expect the place to be so, cheap. The place was a very run-down two bedroom single bathroom complex; while Tali commented on the way it looked 47 was busy taking some of his weapons off and setting them on the kitchen counter, relieving himself of the weight, not giving a shit about the looks of the place.

Once Tali was done exploring the place, she joined 47 in the living room, he was sitting on the couch without his jacket on and had his Omni-tool on and was searching through some of the codex databases that Tali had moved onto it from the extranet. He was mainly reading about Eclipse and the various alien races that lived on the Citadel, finding out as much as he could about what he was up against.

That's when Tali looked at 47's arsenal of weapon that he had on the counter and was very surprised about the amount of firepower that he had. She ran her fingers along the body of the G36 and admired how well he took care of it, she then lifted the weapon and unfolded the stock and was very surprised at how much the gun weighed in comparison to her shotgun. She put the butt of the rifle into the pocket of her shoulder and looked down the sights; she had never used a traditional human weapon before but still used the same safety rules when handling any weapon.

As she was looking at the weapons, 47 was still keeping an eye on her just to make sure that she wouldn't miss treat any of his guns then went back to looking through the codex on his Omni-tool. Along with searching for information about life on the Citadel, he saw that the news had covered a story on the firefight at the docks between Eclipse and C-Sec; it explained very little about the start of the event and didn't disclose any information about the Quarians being executed, the only other thing that it said was that some of the mercs got away while only a few were captured and interrogated.

AS he continued to read, Tali was still going through his equipment. One of the things that she questioned at first was the piano fiber wire that he had coiled up but then moved along to his P22G pistols that he had used earlier, she examined it just like she did with his rifle to see how the weapon was loaded and the different safeties it had.

She then set them down then moved over to 47's dual Silverballer handguns but before she was able to remove them from the holsters, 57 had come up beside her and set his hand atop them, "These are special to me, if you want to see them I would like to be here as well." He instructed her.

Tali just nodded and took a half step back. "What make them special?"

"In my line of work I always discard any weapons that I would use in a mission and get them replaced so I could get rid of any evidence of the crime. I've never done that with these because someone sent them to me as a gift." He was referring to Diana, his sole handler at the I.C.A. "Let me show you them." He then removed them from the holsters and ejected the magazines then pulled the slide back, letting the .45 round pop out of the chamber. "These guns are individually called AMT Hardballers; they were based off of the M1911 model and use .45 ACP rounds. As a set, they these are called Silverballers." He then handed the weapon over to Tali along with the magazine so she could get a feel for the weight.

"They weight a lot more than the other pistols." She stated.

"That's because it uses a much smaller round."

"Well that seems odd."

"How so?"

"Well most every weapon now uses a universal thermal clip, much easier to find ammo." She then handed back the gun to 47 who then put the magazine back into the magazine well and racked a round into the chamber then put them back into the holsters. Tali then made her way over to the couch and said, "If you're ready I can make a call to help find Woods."

47 followed her and took a seat next to her on her left. He just watched her as she brought up her Omni-tool and pressed a few keys followed by a low tune just like a phone. They both waited for a little while with no answer from whomever she called. When the ringing stopped 47 looked over at Tali as if he was waiting for something else to happen; her only response was pressing a few more buttons on her device, followed by the same tone as before.

The same thing happened a few more times but Tali was persistent with calling because she wasn't sure what 47 would do if she couldn't help him. He told her that he was an assassin and with her experience with mercs she knew that most of them will stop their work as soon as they weren't paid. Her worry went away when they heard another voice on the other end of the line but without any video feed. "Who is this and what do you want?" a very deep voice said.

"I know it's you, shadow broker. It's me, Tali" There was another short pause, followed by a different person talking to her.

"Tali? I'm sorry I didn't know it was you calling."

"It's alright Liara." Tali replied.

47 thought that if this person needed to use a voice filter to protect her identity then they must either be valuable or hiding from someone.

Tali and Liara then started talking about what happened to the Quarians at the dock. "I received information that your cargo shuttles were attacked by Eclipse a few hours ago and tried to contact you because I knew that you were a part of that; but for some reason my calls weren't going through." Liara explained.

Tali just looked over to 47 in a blaming way, she was still upset about what he did but she knew it was necessary. "Yeah that Omni-tool doesn't work anymore so I have to use this one now. Anyway, I have a favor to ask."

Liara's voice took a sudden change when she answered, "Listen Tali, I would like to help but we are in danger."

"What's wrong?" Tali replied.

"Along with hearing about you, I was also told that Miranda, Grunt, and Jack were also attacked by Eclipse yesterday along with Garrus and James being attacked this morning."

Tali was starting to become more and more frightened as she started to read off the names of her former squad mates. "Do you know why?" she asked.

"Tali." Liara said. "Samara and Javik were killed by Eclipse, I'm sorry to be the one to tell you."

That's when 47 could tell that Tali was starting to cry underneath her mask. He rested a hand upon her shoulder and whispered that it would be alright. Tali placed her hand upon his and thanked him, she then placed her hand back at her side and said to Liara, "Please tell me that that was everyone."

"Yes Tali, I was able to contact them and warn them, but Tali you must be careful, Eclipse was hired to kill all of Shepard's crew and I haven't been able to find out who yet."

Tali couldn't think of anything to say to that; if she wasn't fearful for her life before, she defiantly was now. That's when 47 interrupted her train of thought by tapping her on the shoulder and motioning to Liara. "Um, Liara about that favor I was asking you about. I'm trying to find someone in exchange for protection from someone."

Liara paused at this, "What's his name?"

"His name is Dr. Woods."

"I mean the one protecting you."

"Well, his name is 47, a human assassin."

"Just a minute." Liara told her.

47 decided that it was time to speak up. "If you're doing a search on me I wouldn't expect for you to find anything."

"Are you 47?" She asked.

47 replied, "I can assure you that Tali is in safe hands. I'm looking for a human named Dr. Woods, you more than likely won't have much information on him either unless he used his name at the hospital."

"Let me do a search." She said, "I don't have anything on him but I can get it to you in exchange for an assignment."

'Great.' 47 thought sarcastically. "What do you need?"

"Don't worry it's nothing irreverent to Tali, what I need you to do is get some data from an Eclipse hideout." She said. "I won't send you without help of course, someone will be waiting there to help you with this."

"I don't need any help, I just need someone to look out for Tali while I'm gone." 47 replied.

"Unless if you're a hacking expert, you'll need help with this, I'll also send some Salarian STG's that owe me to watch after Tali."

"Well couldn't I just go along with him?" Tali chimed in, wanting to be apart of getting back at the mercs.

"I'm going into one of their bases where they will have high security and will immediately kill you on sight; are you volunteering?" 47 asked to which Tali didn't respond. "Liara, could you send Tali the information about where I'm going and who you'll be sending to help me?"

"Of course."

**Well that took a little bit longer than expected to get done. Graduation and some other stuff got in the way of writing, also, can anyone guess who Eclipse's mystery client is?**


	7. Chapter 7

47 was sitting patiently in the skycab that Liara had sent for him while reading over a data pad that had instructions and information over the base on the essentials, personnel, armory, and layout. He received some information on his new teammate that was going to meet up with him but only briefly looked over it, still not happy about working with someone in the field. All that he was concerned about was getting them in to gather intel and getting out as soon as possible undetected.

He left some of his equipment with Tali and only brought his Silverballers, fiber wire, and a throwing knife that he got from one of the Salarian STGs guarding Tali that he got to meet before he left. This was the standard arsenal that he would bring on a stealth operation like this; he didn't even bother to bring the G36 because he knew that if he got into a situation that he would need the weapon he would already be dead.

Looking back over the area layout he spent as much time as he could trying to get familiar with the place. It was a fairly tall building that had fifteen floors and had many windows, the floor that held all of their servers were located on the twelfth floor. From what he had read about the place was that it served as both a training facility and storage for information and equipment. The complex was also right next to two identical building to its left and right and was connected to them by a bridge on the top floor that ran through all three towers and had glass walls on both sides of the walkway, making it easy for anyone to monitor traffic through the complexes.

He looked out the window and could see the target site getting closer with each passing second as the skycab made its way through traffic to its intended stop in a parking lot a few blocks away from the Eclipse base. 47 stepped out of the vehicle once it came to a complete stop and watched as the door closed behind him then took off and made its way back into the herd of cars. He took a look around him and saw that the streets were filled just as any other place that he had been to on the Citadel.

His new Omni-tool beeped twice and pulled up a message from an unknown number, 'I've arrived and am waiting for your presence.' It read. 47 was supposed to meet up outside of a hardware store then depart to the target building together. He walked three blocks down the street before arriving at the store and entering it; the place had a layout that was similar to an electronics store back on Earth with wide selections on various equipment for thing such as Omni-tools and vid screens. He walked up and down the aisles, making the impression that he was browsing the merchandise when in reality he was looking for his partner.

It was when someone walked up next to him that he ceased acting and turned to the... person beside him. It wasn't human or alien; it was a machine, female by the frame and had a silver coating covering the entire body. "It's a beautiful day." It said.

"The nights are even better." He responded; it was the preset code that they established to identify each other.

"47." She acknowledged him as she seemed to scan over him and size him up and unknown to him, she was simultaneously going through the information in his Omni-tool wirelessly.

"EDI." 47 replied unaware about her sorting through his data. Just as she was doing to him, he was scanning over her; he had never seen a fully operational robot and never had seen a fully functioning artificial intelligence in his lifetime. "I didn't expect for Liara to send someone like you."

"I am the best suited to handle this situation in several ways as seen by Liara; I'm able to tamper with their security by replaying past footage, I'm also the most efficient when it comes to decrypting enemy software without detection." She said boastfully but truthfully at the same time.

"Are you ready to get started?" He asked.

"I'm ready to proceed." EDI simply stated as she started to walk towards the exit along side of 47. They received a wave goodbye from a Salarian employee which EDI returned. While walking towards the base, EDI started telling 47 anything else he might not know about with the situation then started to make a plan of entry. She went on about the different possible ways that they could approach such as hiding amongst different crates that were scheduled to arrive and put into storage or even being dropped off onto the roof by a sky car but she shot down her own idea after realizing that it was too easy to spot. "Do you have any input on the matter?" She asked, she still had several ideas but wanted to know what 47 wanted to do.

"I'll need to see the grounds before I make any plans." He said.

EDI on the other hand went on with other alternatives to her previous ideas much to 47's annoyance. He was already starting to dislike her and her constant talking, why Liara had sent her was beyond him. Once they approached their destination, 47 didn't need much time to think about what needed to be done once he saw the base of the building. Around the structure was a walled in area with guards at the front entrance preventing anyone from entering without approval. He gestured for them to move alongside the cement and went to the far side so they could not be seen. "I need you to look over the wall and tell me what you see." 47 instructed EDI as he got down on one knee to give her a boost.

The synthetic did as she was told and stepped onto his hand and was hoisted up just enough for her to get a clear view of the area. She saw that it was about sixty feet from the wall to any side of the building and had plenty of walkways and hedges along with potted plants and trees. She started relaying the scenery to her partner while keeping an eye out for patrols and security cameras, there were some number of grounds keepers along with the occasional Asari Eclipse merc that would patrol the area.

As he held up her weight, 47 began thinking of how to get in there. On several other contracts that needed him to enter a building he would try to enter one of the back doors with a key that he would have to get from someone who was unfortunate enough to be at the wrong place at the wrong time. And on the Citadel most doors were opened electronically so EDI would be able to hack any locked door that they came across. "EDI, do you see any doors that we can get to?"

Her eyes drifted around the perimeter of the structure for no more than three seconds before saw a set of doors that led into some type of back room. "Yes." She replied. "But there is someone standing guard." There was in fact just a single human armed with a M-7 Avenger standing to the side of the entrance.

"What I want you to do is tell me when nobody is looking so I can push you over the wall." 47 told EDI.

"Now!" She said followed by 47 pushing her up and over the seven foot wall with ease. She landed alongside a line of hedges and quickly took cover. She then peered through the plants to be lookout for 47. She watched patiently over anyone that was in line of sight and waited to give the signal that it was safe. It didn't take long for them to get a small window of opportunity for 47 to make the jump once it was safe. EDI talked to him over his Omni-tool and told him it was safe.

47 scaled over the wall unassisted but with a less graceful landing as EDI then soon joined her behind the shrubs. He took a moment to survey the area for himself so he could formulate a route to take. "The biggest problem is getting rid of the guard; we could either kill him then try to hide the body, probably could find somewhere inside to dump it. Or we can try a distraction, we can find something to throw or lure him away while we get inside."

As 47 was coming up with an idea, EDI took some time to hack the merc's Omni-tool and did a little reading on him. While looking through all of his programs she noted that he lacked quite a bit of necessary firewalls to disrupt her progress. "47, I might be able to do something about him." She stated.

"Ok, so how do you plan on doing so?" 47 questioned.

"If we can get as close to our objective as possible, I can distract him long enough for you to strike while I open the door."

47 nodded to her then poked his head around the corner to make sure he was clear to move up closer. Once he got behind cover, he would signal for EDI to join him when it was safe to move. The process repeated itself until they were in a comfortable range from the doors. "Is this close enough?" 47 asked.

"Yes." EDI replied. "I am going to trigger certain tech programs that would give us a favorable reaction so others won't be immediately alarmed to the situation; as he's distracted, I need you to subdue him while I work on the door." She explained.

47 was the one to give the signal, if he was to be the one to strike then he wanted as much of the upper hand as possible. He got out his fiber wire and wrapped the opposite ended around his hands, he wanted a clean kill with as little blood as possible to avoid alarm.

They were lined up against the side of the building, hiding alongside of some rose bushes, only about fifteen feet away from the guard. EDI was lookout for anyone coming behind them while 47 waited for the best time to strike. He crept up as close as possible while making sure that nobody else was watching. He then slowly slid his foot over towards EDI and softly kicked her leg, letting her know to do her thing.

That's when what looked like a small EMP went off on the merc's tool. "What the fuck?" he said. The merc brought up his left hand and started to look at what happened; 47 took this moment to close the distance with his fiber wire ready. When he was just a few feet away, he lunged at him and brought the wire around the guard's neck and pulled. He was aiming for the Adam's apple, it only takes five pounds of pressure to break it but 47 used a lot more pressure. He could feels it break through the wire while the man tried to call for help but the blood flowing through his through his throat made it impossible to do so.

As the man was drowning in his blood, EDI came up and started working on the door and got it opened quickly. "It's open." She told 47. She then led him into the building and helped him hid the body inside of a large trash can.

Once the corpse was disposed of, 47 put his wire away and equipped his Silverballer pistols. They found themselves in a hallway that had several office doors on either side that had windows directed towards the hall but only a few of them were occupied. The both of them did a low crawl just below the windows to remain unseen until they reached the end and came had to round the corners. The only problem was making sure it was clear without being spotted. "EDI." 47 whispered. "Since you can loop old footage in the cameras can't you use them to see if anyone is over there?"

EDI paused for a moment then answered, "Yes, the coast is clear, we can move up." She said.

Still wanting to make sure for himself, he poked his head around the corner to double check before moving. They navigated their way through several more hallways while trying to avoid any open rooms, whenever they had someone that poised a threat to detection, they would backtrack to find an alternate route rather than risk detection.

Then there came a point where they couldn't turn back but the path in front of them had three Eclipse mercs, two Salarians and an Asari, in the same room. EDI had looked through the cameras and informed him of what was inside the room and advised to duck behind a stack of mats on their right as soon as they entered the room. It was a training room that they had to go through; it was an open area with things such as training dummies, weights, and practice weapons like fake swords and batons.

47 noticed that they were unarmed and were using weight machines at one end of the room. They were about to make a move to the other end but stopped when they saw the Asari walking towards them. It didn't seem as though she noticed them but still made her way in that direction towards weights. EDI equipped her sidearm and was prepared to fire at the Asari but 47 placed a hand on top of her hand and lowered it then said, "Let me handle this." He could hear her footsteps getting closer and waited until she was as close as possible before he would strike.

As the merc came around the corner, she caught sight of them both in the corner of her eye and took a step back but was too late. 47 had sprung towards her on his front leg and made contact to her mid-section, he then wrapped his arms around her upper thighs and used the upward thrust of his hip to lift her up into the air then with all of his strength, drove her onto the hard ground. The force of blow made the Asari hit the back of her head on the ground which caused her to nearly blackout but 47 was quick to deliver a swift punch to the side of her head to finish the job.

The other two Eclipse members in the room quickly took notice and ran towards the door to get help; EDI had already locked the doors and held them at gun point. "I've isolated their communications; how do you wish to proceed?" she asked 47. The two mercs looked around for anything that they could use a weapon and opted for the wooden training swords. One of them bravely faced the hitman while the other one seemed unsure of what to do.

47 just brushed the dust off of his suit jacket and approached the mercs. "No evidence." He simply stated as he grabbed a baton on its rack. The first one charged him and brought up the sword to strike, aiming at his neck. 47 directed the baton with both hands, his right arm to deflect the attack with the baton and his left to grab his opponent's wrist. Then he just as quickly brought the baton down just a little and struck the Salarian in the ribcage with its wooden center. As the opponent cringed in pain, 47 brought his right arm up and struck the merc's forearm to make him release his weapon then followed it up by swinging the baton with both arms into his temple, causing a visible depressed fracture in his skull.

He then took the initiative to charge the other cowering merc who didn't even put up a fight when 47 bashed the side of his weapon into the side of his skull three times. 47 then dropped the weapon and started to drag the body behind the mats they were hiding behind. "Can you get the other one?" he asked EDI.

She just walked over to the body and dragged it by its legs over towards the others. "You're an efficient fighter, kill without slowing your pace and don't show mercy, I knew someone who would have wanted you on his team."

"And just who is that?" 47 asked as he dragged the Asari next to the Salarian.

"He was my previous commander, his name was Shepard."

"Wait, I heard Liara that Eclipse was targeting his old crew."

"That is correct." EDI sated as though nothing was wrong.

"So these men are looking for you as well?"

"These men do not know of me because alliance records were 'modified' to show that no AI was aboard his ship." She then strolled past him towards the door that was leading them to the elevator. "Now we must hurry, this room is likely to be used again soon."

**Another lengthy chapter for you viewers. Next weeks chapter might be late because I'm traveling to the coast for a few days but I will still try to do what I can. Also, I want to hear feedback from anyone because I want to know what I'm doing right or wrong with this story or my writing style so please leave a review.**


End file.
